OK, I visit a number of GM enthusiast websites. And I keep reading stories about people having problems, both major and minor, trying to get their vehicles repaired under warranty.

My own recent GM experiences back this up. My wife had a 2001 Grand Prix GTP. Had an issue with "intermittent" A/C - would start blowing warm air. Switch the A/C off, turn it back on, it would usually start working fine. Each and every time I brought the car in (even for an oil change), I mentioned this. Got those dreaded "Could not duplicate the customer's concern). The A/C compressor went out literally as we were leaving a Pontiac dealership having purchased my first GTO (and at 1k miles over warranty). Thankfully, my long history of complaining about this, plus the new car purchase, plus being so close to the end of the warranty (was 3 days away from 36 months), so Pontiac goodwill repaired the car.

Then, there's the saga of my first GTO. I suspect the dealer never did the prep procudure - tire pressure was still 60 psi, spring compressors still in the suspension. Well, the car was making squeaking noises from the dash - took it in, and they had the car for almost 3 weeks trying to figure out what was wrong - tore apart the dash, pulled the windshield, dropped the engine and tranny, realigned the cradle - before they discovered that the firewall hadn't been put together properly from the factory. After using seamsealer to fix the car, I got it back, to discover scratched rocker panels, glue on the dash, the steering wheel not put together correctly (the spokes popped together), the trailing edge of the hood had been chipped (probably when they pulled the windshield), and, worst of all, the car now made HORRIBLE clunking noises when turning (which it most certainly did NOT do when I took it in). After several more failed repair attempts, and other problems, I had to raise holy hell to get the car swapped (after it had been in the shop for 35 days in 2 1/2 months). Then, there's whole repurchase experience, where GM dragged their feet on the paperwork (my replacement car was at the dealership in 3 days, but it took GM nearly TWO MONTHS to process the paperwork - then they lost it, and my wife and I had to go back in and re-sign it).

Then, there's my wife's Envoy, which kept shuddering/missing badly. Of course, got the dreaded "could not duplicate customer's concern" and a "they all do that" from the service manager. Well, until the SES light started flashing one night and I had the car towed in - cracked spark plug from the factory. Had another recent stumbling/stalling problem with the Envoy (threw a P0130 O2 sensor code, but the dealership refused to swap it) - after a month of driving around with a Kent-Moore data recorder, and throwing P0130 codes, I had a "connected" friend email the details to the GMT-360 Brand Quality Manager, who had someone call the dealership and told them to fix/how to fix the truck.

Then, there's my most recent experience. The trunk on my GTO won't release, so I took it in to get fixed, and had them do an oil change and tire rotation on the car. Drove from Milwaukee down to Chicago to the LS1 Speed open house, and noticed a horrible banging from my car - suspension? exhaust? Waited 'til almost everyone had gone, and, had them put my car up on a lift (one of the workers there is a friend of mine). The #@#@@ dealership must have forgotten to tighten the bolts on the GTO's skid plate, because two of them were missing and the noise I heard was the skidplate banging against the engine cradle. I can only think about what that 15 lb. skidplate would have done to my car, or, worse yet, someone else's car/windshield had it come off at 70 mph.

This isn't all at the same dealership, either. At this point I don't know where I'm going to take my GTO or Envoy should they need warranty service. As much as I and my wife would like to add an '09 or '10 Camaro to the stable, if I keep having crappy experiences like these (and again, my experiences are NOT isolated from what I read everywhere else), why should I even consider buying another GM car?

GM could build the world's greatest and most reliable vehicles, but yet the ****-poor dealership service/repair has cost them more customers than they know. The whole concept of paying extremely low labor rates on warranty work MUST BE CHANGED (because dealers deny, deny, deny in lieu of the more-profitable non-warranty work - or they rush through it). The dealerships should be held accountable for customer satisfaction or have their franchises revoked. With all of the other problems on GM's radar, I don't think this issue has cropped up. SOMEONE had best pay attention, because they are burning too many bridges.

 

Dealers, like everyone else in the world, simply mirror how you act. I go out of my way to be polite at my dealer, and they do the same. I'm very happy with my dealer and have never had a major conflict or disappointment with them. There is a big variation among dealers though... and some I will not work with. Just find a good one and establish a rapport with them.

As for the problems found on modern cars - there are thousands of parts on new cars, there are bound to be a few problems. GM's are not much different overall anymore, for quality overall vs the imports. My 05 GTO for example, has had a grand total of TWO warranty issues in the first eight months of ownership, neither of which was major. *yawn*

 

I have been patient and tried to be understanding with my dealership. But I am frankly sick of this crap. I don't come in there with an attitude (unless I'm bringing the car back for the third time with the same problem). What could I have said or done (to a service writer) to get the tech to not tighten the skidplate bolts?

Here's another problem... you, and most GM execs, are in the Detroit metro area. I strongly believe that the service dealerships in Detroit are stronger, because the HAVE TO BE. Many of their customers are GM employees, or know people who are. They can't get away with this "no trouble found/cannot duplicate the problem" crap that those of us in the other 49 states are stuck with.

I really don't know if it's better elsewhere, but I don't see the litany of service complaints about other brands as I do GM. Then again, I don't spend a lot of time at other brand-specific websites...

 

I disagree. There are plenty of dealers out there that seem incompetent or are out to screw you regardless of how polite you are.

I think you have to go find the honest/good dealers and then you can treat them professionally because they will do the same for you.

 

Lots of dealers want to sell you a car then make it li ke they're doing you a favor by honoring the warranty. Even some Toyota dealers are pretty lame duck.

 

Agreed - and it won't work at a crummy dealer. That's why I said before, there are some I won't deal with.

It's interesting you mention that... I took my GTO to a Jiffy Lube for its 1st oil change at 2600 miles. Did my customary post-oil change check in their parking lot... sure enough, TWO skid plate bolts missing! They found them in their bay and put them in... the tech said "well the skid plate was HEAVY!" I was polite here too, and the job got done. People just need some accommodation and cross-checking now and then. Gettting all worked up about it just alienates and causes a vicious circle.

 

I have had enough bad experiences with the closest Pontiac shop to me that I won't be back. I have flat out told them I'd never be back, and when GM sent me the service follow up letter, my response was nasty enough a service rep called me. They had three chances, and three times I left angry.

But, the Chevrolet Dealership I bought my Z28 from has been great to deal with. They have fixed a few issues the car has had even though it was out of warranty

Dealerships need to understand that the customer experience doesn't end when the car is driven off the lot.

 

Is it maybe a Pontiac thing?
I didn't really have any issues with 3 different Chevy dealers (I moved twice), back when my wife and I both had '96 Luminas.

I have a '98 Aurora and it spent a lot of time at the local Olds-GMC dealership (thank god for the extended warranty). They were good, but now are gone (and sold the GMC franchise to a sleazy Caddy dealer who pimps the heck out of their cars).

Only recurring problems I've had have been with 3 different Pontiac dealers, one of whom is GMC also...

 

This is really, really a completely asinine, pointless post.

There are crappy dealers for ANY company. Chrysler dealers. Toyota dealers. BMW dealers. Go find one you like. End of story. Dedicating a whole thread to this seems like an awful waste of space...

 

Waste of space to you... since you're not having this problem.

I've been to three, count 'em, three different Pontiac dealerships in the Milwaukee metro area... and have had bad experiences or crappy attitudes from all of them. How many should I try before I give up?

Go ahead, stick your head in the sand. The experiences I've had are real and they appear to be symptomatic of MANY folks.

 

I agree 100% with this, i know my 04 elantra gt has been a PITA to get stuff warrentied on

 

Have you tried Foster Pontiac on S 27th, they are known for having a good service dept?

There are very good GM dealerships around, you just have to ask around.
I work as a CSI person for one south of Milwaukee which sells other GM brands (not Pontiac), and our service satisfaction rating on our internal dealership survey is 94.5% over the last 5 months.

 

I know of at least one good Pontiac dealer around here, so it isn't all of them I have to agree with what Jason said.

 

And that is the entire point. If it takes 4-5 dealers, then try it. I sympathize with the situation, but ranting on a message board won't do a damn thing. I go to a lot of different boards, and every brand has crappy dealers. Starting a thread entitled "When will GM realize that dealer service sucks" is pretty asinine, IMO. It isn't a GM thing, its an industry-wide thing. And there's plenty of awesome GM dealers. I wouldn't have MY car serviced at the one I used to work at until 2 weeks ago! I went to one 2 towns over, and got white-glove-quality service.

 

There is on local Dodge dealer that dicked my parents around on work on their Stratus. They took it in 7 times to get the cruse fixed and never did. They took it in to fix the window coming off the rack, they ended up pulling the window switch wires out of the door. When my dad pointed this out and even talked to the manager of the serivce dept, they never took responsibility. Just recently the dealer is under new ownership.